While the software development process is going on. It is necessary to test various functions of the software repeatedly. Repeated testing ensures that the software is working in an intended manner and bugs (if present) are eliminated.

Many software development companies use smoke testing to find if the project is ready for end users’ use or if are there any more necessary changes in the software.

When in-depth testing is done, the chances of solving even the smallest bugs increase. In this article, we will understand what smoke testing is, along with its benefits, risks, and when to use this technique. So, let’s dive into this together.

What is Smoke Testing?

Smoke test, aka, confidence testing, is a process to know the functionality, stability, integration ability, and efficiency of the project under development.

One can also call this process verification testing as the test checkers for errors with the software build. This technique generally involves multiple tests that testers can conduct manually or use automated test methods.

Testing different software components can enable the testers to discover breaches in the code issues without using more valuable assets. Smoke testing also helps the QA team to determine whether the software is ready to release or might require additional development and testing work.

Why is Smoke testing required?

Smoke testing is a process that is performed in the phase of software when it is released to the QA and testing team. Consider a situation where an eCommerce app is deployed in the testing phase, but when the tests are going on, it is found the user is not allowed to log into the app to proceed and perform different tasks; or one can say- the user is blocked from using the app because he/she is not able to perform basic login activities.

Then there is no meaning in performing detailed and exhaustive testing of other major modules of the app. First, the development team has to solve the issue where users cannot log in to the app. Such issues are determined and solved first while performing smoke testing.

Here are some prime reasons why smoke testing is used while developing software or an app:

• Smoke testing finds major issues in the app in the beginning only
• It helps in reducing the efforts and time of the QA team that could be wasted if the project is not stable
• With smoke testing one can make early identification of the defects
• It increases the stability of the software or app developed

Why is this technique called ‘Smoke’ testing?

The process of smoke testing got its name from the testing of electrical gadgets. A while ago, the first thing was to perform testing of electronic devices and plug it into a power outlet to check if it was emitting smoke or not. If there’s no smoke, it means electric circuits aren’t faulty and now the device’s functionality can be tested easily.

This is the same case in software development, one has to check first if the minimum functionality is working or not. For instance, if the login function is not working, testing further functions is not necessary. First, the developer needs to fix this basic function. After that, one can easily start testing other modules.

Smoke testing- a simple example to understand

Let us understand smoke testing with an easy example.

Suppose, there’s a large web app to test and it has thousands of test cases. Now, if there’s a need to build it with new features or fix some bugs, one way to do this process is complete the test execution cycle. This cycle will take a good amount of time and other resources.

This seems good if there are only minor issues. But if the real problem arises when the project is not stable, and also the core functions aren’t functional, a complete test execution cycle is a waste of time and resources.

To handle such cases, a smoke testing process is introduced. This process will not start the execution of the complete testing cycle. Rather than that, it will just ask the testers to check whether the core functions are working properly.

This way, if the project is stable, one can easily switch to exhaustive testing. If the project is not stable, the team can easily start with a smoke testing process.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Smoke Testing

Smoke testing is a popular process amongst testers and QA team members, as it saves time and different resources. However, with advantages, it has certain drawbacks too. Let’s learn more about both pros and cons:

Advantages of Smoke testing

• A primary advantage of the smoke testing process is that it assists in easily finding errors in the critical functions of the project.
• The smoke testing process helps in cutting the risk of project failure as the errors are found and solved earlier.
• This process is easy to perform as there are no specific efforts of the testing team.
• This process helps in saving the efforts and time of the testing team.
• It improvises the overall software quality and performance.
• Testers have to run only a limited number of test cases to execute and it may cover almost all positive scenarios.
• Smoke testing helps in the confirmation of project requirements which are mentioned in the SRS document.

Disadvantages of Smoke testing

• Accurate documentation is necessary for the situation of implementing smoke testing so a particular team is required for implementing this testing process.
• This process can cause time waste if the software is not stably built.
• In the situation of some minor changes in the app, using smoke testing for end-to-end app testing is not worth it.
• Sometimes it might happen that after smoke testing the whole app, critical errors can arise in system and integration testing.
• Any issue/bug left in the smoke testing can also cause trouble in the future.
• Smoke testing is a manpower process as it is fully scripted and it might happen that using smoke testing, might increase the project budget because it requires manpower and time.

Final verdict

The information explained above will help you in getting a clear understanding of what is the smoke testing process. Before deploying any software or app finally for the use of end-users, this process is performed.

It is important to perform smoke testing as it has a simple motive to start testing from the smallest function of the app. If that primary function is not performing, no need to waste time on complex modules.

First, fix simple functions, and then if required test the app further. However, there are potential risks in this process too. Check them out before choosing smoke testing techniques in your project testing process.

<This is a guest post by Joy Anderson>

<Please reach the author at andersonok02@gmail.com>